Here
I am in Bucharest, I flew in on a small 48 seater aircraft
made in Brazil, quite an uneventful flight, a very small
aircraft and very small amount of space in the seats.

Must
be looking old, a young lady of about 20 stood up to offer
me her seat on the bus out to the plane, it is interesting
this would not happened in New Zealand, nice to be an
area where people still have the old-fashioned manners
even if I do not appreciate it when it is applied to me.

Luggage
seemed to take for ever to arrive, and when it finally
arrived I went out through the nothing to declare door,
the airport was almost packed full of people, I saw older
person holding my name up, and it turned out to be my
guide for next 10 days.

My
guide is 74 years old, so he is seen everything happened
in Romania from the Second World War till today. He said
Romania, as far as he is concerned, is not progressing
fast enough, but from what he tells me, a lot of people
are having a problem with capitalism and the new technology.

Went
to the travel office and I paid the balance of the fee,
some 95 million of the local currency, they tell me next
year they are going to knock four zeros off the currency
which is not a bad idea. After paying out the millions
we went off to the hotel which was a rather nice modern
hotel, close to the railway station, and then we went
for a walk through the city, I hate large cities, they
all look the same, and Bucharest is no different.

I
saw the building from which Ceausescu spoke from before
he departed by helicopter from the roof of the building,
a lot of recent history is happened around this area.

I
found a bank and withdrew 4 million of the local currency
which is about 250 so we interesting to see how
far it goes. We have a good walk around the city, waste
of time taking my camera, however I did discover that
when I fell in Poland I had knocked off the control fascia
of the speed and programmers setting, it however still
works and does not take much to work out what it is on.

Tonight,
there was a six piece band playing in the restaurant,
it consisted of a violin which was fantastic, clarinet,
panpipes, Zalaphone, electric guitar and base. They played
all sorts of fantastic tunes including some old Russian
ones, and were taking requests from people!

Saturday
3 July Bucharest
It rained through the night that looked like it was going
to be a clear day, Alex collected me and we went for drive
through the city, had the trousers I bought and Poland
altered, then went for a walk and were halfway to our
destination when the skies opened, Alex ran on ahead,
and I made the decisions to shelter under a tree, which
would in fine if it was a passing shower, but it turned
to be deluge and more and more water passed through the
tree until I was getting soaked, so with nothing to lose,
I started running back towards the car and some shelter,
and in time I found shelter, I did not have an dry piece
of clothing on me, and the shoes were soaking.

Eventually
the rain stopped, Alex came back towards the car, and
drove me back to the hotel, where I stripped totally,
found I was totally wet through, as if I had had a shower,
so hung everything up to dry, put dry clothes on and waited
until two o'clock for Alex to collect me.

We
then went looking for dry shoes, new shoes of course,
found nothing that would fit, then started looking for
a heating pad to help with my sore back, which either
must be a chill or a strain, and now my neck is getting
sore again like it did last year, about the same time,
it would seem that I'm getting a little old for this nomadic
life.

So
I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel,
tomorrow we head out for 10 days, I'll leave my large
suitcase here, and carry the necessities in a small suitcase,
and re-evaluate the situation on my return.

Before
I went for dinner tonight I went for walk towards the
railway station, I was just turning around when a Romanian
approached me and started trying to make conversation,
he kept on asking me where from, I would not answer and
pretended I did not understand, I just moving away when
two well built men in plainclothes swooped on us grabbed
hold of him. They Flashed Identity Cards at Us Both and
asked for our identity cards, I said mine was back of
my hotel, they were happy with that

They
asked me had he been offering me heroin, they grabbed
his wallet, pulled some money out of it and asked me if
it was mine, they asked me to see inside my wallet, at
that point I want to see his identity card again, it looked
real, so I said over here, he came over here, looked at
my wallet, I pulled out one note and he looked at it,
asked me if I had dollars or euros, and that point he
was happy and told me not to change money on the street,
thanked me very much, and they disappeared, I did not
look to see what happened to my friend! I just walked
on….

They
had that nice orchestra playing again tonight the music
was good for food was good, if it stays like that through
the trip and will be good.

I
had a sweet tonight with my food, I did not know what
it was so I asked the waitress was it any good, she said
oh yes! she says, but ladies have to stay slim, it is
an interesting mindset the eastern European women have.

Is
interesting the types of markets that the French have
gone after and have made significant inroads into that
market. They put up a strong presence here in Romania,
they had a strong presence in Pakistan, it becomes rather
obvious with these strong business ties to marginal countries
why they so often sit on the fence in politics.

Sunday
4 July Sibiu
The two men that were posing as tourist police last night,
after I thought about it overnight, I realised it could
have been a scam, it's very simple to make up laminated
card that looks official, no tourist would know what a
proper card looked like, possibly my saving grace was
that I had no euros or dollars in the local money, interesting
thought.

I
packed my small silver suitcase to take with me and left
my large suitcase at the hotel, a much better way to travel,
I may have to forget the white shirt and bowtie so I can
travel lighter!

Alex
was that the hotel to collect me and 8.30 and we set off
on day one of the tour visiting monasteries, palaces,
until we reached our current location at Sibiu said to
be the finest mediaeval city in Romania.

Is
very interesting the number of horses and wagons that
we started seeing the moment we got to the outskirts of
Bucharest, and we saw them on a very regular basis all
day. It seems to be the major transport for majority of
the people with cars being an unaffordable price.

We
saw quite a lot of gypsies on our travels, and where ever
they were there were tourists, they were there begging,
showing their deformities so they could make some money.
I saw a woman with six fingers, (don't ask me how that
happened) I seen several people with 1 foot chopped off,
I believe this is deliberate to make themselves more susceptible
to collecting money. Very small children were in on the
act, rubbing their stomach as if they were hungry, while
all the time asking for money.

At
the restaurant I saw one little old lady going round the
table is trying to sell some sunflower seeds, she was
unsuccessful at that, but very successful in raising people
sympathy and collected a little bit of money, the gypsies
could learn from her!

The
main church of Romania is of course the Orthodox, they
have their own branch, if that is the correct word, with
their own Bishop, if that is the correct term, and their
churches are different to the Russian Orthodox that have
the onion domes. They have some extremely old churches
which are very interesting to look at particular one realises
their age.

We
drove up a valley beside a river through this gap in the
two major ranges of mountains, both that rose to 2 to
3000 metres, and we have ended up in the province of Transylvania,
yes I am on the lookout for Dracula and his Kin.

Monday
5 July Sighisoara
An eventful day visited some older Saxon churches at Crit,
Saschiz, Viscri, the latter was in an isolated village
from which almost all of the Saxons have now gone back
to Germany. I been wanting to visit the Saxon villages
for about seven to 10 years, I have in my mind from an
article that I read that they were wooden and rather unique,
however Alex my guide knows of no village like that, none
of the Saxon villages I've so far visited are what I would
call unique, just little villages built in what I would
call a Romanian style, Alex assures me it is a Saxons
style, perhaps when I get into the Romanian countryside
with Romanian villages built out of wood this may be what
was blended into the article.

My
back was better late this afternoon, I will see what it
is like in the morning.

No
connection to the Internet tonight, and from what Alex
tells me that may be the same again tomorrow night, is
interesting thing one now has to specify that one requires
the hotel with the telephone in the room that will allow
an Internet connection. It is interesting how the world
moves on.

Tuesday
6 July Sighetu Maratiei
Today we drove up to the Ukrainian border in on the way
visited several old wooden churches and saw very many
wooden houses built out of solid wood, and there were
some wonderful photographs had I been able to walk properly.
I most disappointed in all the photographs I'm missing,
but I guess that is life.

For
the record we've visited Bogdan Voda, Leud wooden church,
Rozavlea wooden church, and a brand-new one built in the
old style at Botiza.

The
town that we are in had a major prison for the intellectuals
during the Soviet times. Evidently there were kept in
isolation for their full prison term, or until the amnesty
in 1968.

Wednesday
7 July SucevitaToday
was a drive through massive fir forests and the accompanying
large-scale logging operations. It was a very remote area
in relation to the capital, and as we drove through these
villages you could not help but get the feeling that as
long as it did not affect them, the outside world did
not exist.

It
almost appeared as if all women over 40 were wearing black,
no longer have a need for their bra, and were all of a
similar body shape. No trips to the gym for these people,
a work out is in the fields hoeing potatoes, raking grass
or some other daily chore was always waiting to be done.

I
guess if you are brought up in this environment, and your
expectations are limited to the village your lot is a
happy one.

We
stopped at a local shop, as it was past mealtime and I
thought that a ice cream may hold my hunger off, the shop
was a total disaster with stuff stacked everywhere, but
Alex said a couple of words in his longo and I had a choice
of about five different ice creams, she knew where everything
was, in the way she was patting my arm, I wondered whether
I was going to get out of the shop safely!

There
were three young attractive girls out the front I guess
about 16+ years of age, dressed as Western girls, very
well-dressed, and I assumed they were waiting for a bus.
I questioned Alex later about what job opportunities were
therefore that age group of girls. He said if they get
up at 5 a.m. they can catch a bus to the next town where
they may get a job in an office, he said but those girls
were working for pleasure, I said pleasure? He says yes
pleasure, I sad you mean prostitute, he said yes, they
were waiting for some rich tourists to come along and
pay some money. Thinking about it afterwards it did not
quite add up but I guess if he was wrong on those girls
he may be right on many others.

Today
was another trip looking at monasteries, this time, painted
ones, the outside of the entire building was painted with
religious scenes, supposedly done about the 16th century.
They both had a good group of tourists visiting them,
and the hordes of souvenir sellers in and around the car
park.

It
is rather beautiful driving through all of the forests,
very European in their look, I guess if you have the same
trees all forests look the same.

I
had booked the tour for three star hotels where they existed,
and this evening was offered a room in a house, with a
bathroom on the other side of the lounge. That did not
take very long to walk out of and so the alternative was
a three star hotel in a city 30 kilometres away. A good
alternative.

Going
through the villages occasionally a saw an old woman badly
crippled with osteoporosis, they were managing to walk
around, but I guess it's a matter of necessity. Another
observation on village life, is that I guess you live
in the village for a lifetime, all of your friends are
there, when the children marry, there's a chance they
will start living in your house, so I guess it is a lifetime's
occupation, unlike the West when your children leave home
you have to start another life!

Another
thought is that when a member of the family dies, after
the funeral the remaining partner does not go home to
an empty house, but returns to the house with the rest
of the family so they are not left by themselves. And
we call our way progress.

We
received a complimentary glass of wine last night at dinner,
so this hotel will have the advantage of me remembering
that glass of wine for as long as my memory lasts, Alex
described it as peasant wine, I described it as ghastly.
The hotel chain is a Romanian owned chain, which has been
formed in recent years and the standard of service is
approaching that of the West, they still have some peculiar
ex-Soviet thinking that I guess that will change in time.

Romania
has reasonably extensive oil deposits and large fields
of natural gas, however they still import some natural
gas from Russia via pipeline, they use the natural gas
for heating, Alex was telling me during Soviet times that
in the winter when it got to 25° below, there would
be no natural gas, no explanation, no complaints, and
you had to try to buy electric heaters, and electricity
was very expensive, so most of your rooms were freezing
cold. Some apartment blocks had central heating, but the
water in it, froze which of course destroyed the central
heating.

Here
is an interesting question for you which country is larger
in land mass, Romania or New Zealand?

In
Campulung Moldovenesc (a city) we visited a Woodworking
museum, they have wooden objects of every sort, think
of something, and at some time in this area they made
it out of wood….. OK no TV sets! But you know what I mean.

Drove
up to Siret by the Ukraine border, just farming scenery,
today drove again thro just farming scenery. The whole
country outside the city's is one large peasant farm,
with the whole family from very young to very old working
in the field, either hoeing the vegetables, or raking
in bringing in the hay.

Horse
and cart's are the common means of transport right throughout
the country, there's a reasonable number of bicycles,
but if you're going anywhere I think it would be by public
transport. There is a locally produced Renault, the one
that was produced in the West about 30 years ago, you
see them everywhere, of course with the end of the Soviet
system, Renault have come in and taken over the factory
and now producing a slightly more up-to-date version.
I'm being driven round the country in a little bit better
version of the Renault, this one is built in Turkey.

High
heel shoe report, Romania, I regret to advise that the
majority of Ladies wear neither bras nor high heels. This
of course does give some interesting sights!

Housing,
in the major cities you have many of what I call the Russian
apartments, ranging from decrepit to quite modern. There
is lots of building going on everywhere, again of course
in the cities. If you're in the countryside, you of course
are working on the land, you will be living close to the
land you're working on, if you are another forested area,
there's a fairly good chance your house will be built
out of solid 6 inch timber logs, with the corners slotted
so the whole house is built without nails. There of course
are many other houses of other types of construction,
but they all have one thing in common, no running water,
no bath, no washing machine, no dishwasher!

There
is however a well out on the street, spaced every third
house apart, so you won't have to walk very far to get
your bucket of water. The well heads are well maintained,
some even have a special pendulum system for sending the
bucket down the well in bringing it up full.

If
you have sheep or cattle, at least two members of the
family will go out every day and watch the animals eat,
and make sure none get lost. From what I can gather there's
a tremendous amount of public land and this is where you
take your animals for grazing and naturally with no fences
you need to be there with them.

Tonight
I am staying in a two star hotel, Alex is in the one star
section, the reason my section is two star is that was
recently renovated, I feel that in 1923 would have been
a good guess as to the data renovation.

Of
course with such modern renovation, I cannot get an Internet
connection at the hotel, so I walked along the Internet
cafe, and paid $.20c for 15 minutes!

Quite
a few of the cities that we have visited do what I call
as the continental stroll every evening between us of
five and nine, where everybody is reasonably well-dressed
and strolls up and down the main streets of town.

Romania
of course is known for gypsies, and probably Hungary has
the same branding, they are not at all liked in Romania,
where ever there are tourists you'll see gypsies. Evidently
all of their begging works otherwise they would have stopped
doing this, I tell them what I think in English, which
is just as well that they do not understand me.

Saturday
10 July from Brasov
Today we headed back to Bucharest totally uneventful,
two more castles to cross off the list, back to the hotel
I had started from, back in the same room.

Back
to the same restaurant for my evening meal, and while
walking over there was real electrical storm taking place
in the sky was as black as coal, I debated as to whether
to go back and get my umbrella, but carried on. About
15 minutes after sitting in the restaurant there was real
violent hailstorm with hail the size of peas, fortunately
there was rain in between all this so was no sheet of
hail being built up like a sheet of ice.

Fortunately
it was over before I went back to the hotel, but I was
aware of it raining throughout the night.

Sunday
saw me being collected to go to Bulgaria, uneventful drive
to the border, when I was almost there I realised my visa
for Romania was only a single entry visa which means in
Sofia I'll have to hunt out the Romania Embassy and get
another visa to return to collect my suitcase and flight
onto the next destination.

I
was told that to go through border control probably would
take an hour but only took 15 minutes, and I was on the
road to the first stop which was uneventful, the two hours
plus driving time to Veliko Tarnovo, a location that we
spend three nights at, we passed no villages and I had
no temptation to stop at all. It will have to get better
than this.

Talking
to the young 24-year-old in the bar, he hopes to become
a politician, has doing the necessary university degrees
for this, he raised eyebrows when he asked me why I had
a Romanian showing me Bulgaria. After today's experiences
I am beginning to ask myself the same question.

It
looks like it is going to be the same old series of castles
and monasteries that I've been seeing throughout the trip,
going from country to country like I am, I think I am
reaching saturation point with the normal tourist sights,
and I may be better just to go to country, go to one location
and spent two to three weeks there instead of doing what
I'm doing.

So
if I carry on with my current thinking this will be the
last around the world in 80 Days epic that I do, so will
be the last year of my travel newsletters!

My
guide for Bulgaria is a history school teacher, what have
I done to deserve this, ….but why are most guides stupid
people? ….or is that a prerequisite?

Selectour
of Bucharest arranged for me
to be in this town of Veliko Tarnovo for three nights,
that is 2 1/2 days of sightseeing with program sufficient
for half a day. So after arrival last night we went out
to this typical Bulgarian village, except it was now occupied
by politicians and the rich with the appropriate trimmings,
a type of village or area you can find anywhere in the
world where the rich like to be together.

This
morning we went to a monastery, which was in this village,
another hundred metres on from where we were, so here
we are driving out to see one monastery in one direction,
coming back to this village which is in a different direction
to see another monastery, and then going back the first
direction to see a village which supposed to be typical
of what people live in, and if is, I wonder where the
poor people are that I've heard are in Bulgaria.

There's
a great rivalry between Bulgaria in Romania, my Romanian
guide tells me that Bulgaria is much more backward in
Romania, yet I'm not seen it in the housing or transport.

While
I was watching on sky television what Romania has to do
to join the EEC, and one of the points was to clean up
the corruption which is pretty strong in Romania. My guide
tells me that Bulgaria is full of corruption.

The
guy I met last night who is going to be a politician tells
me that Bulgarians are looking to the future and living
it, whereas Romanians are dwelling on the past and feeling
sorry for themselves.

So
here I am in this town for three nights, with no sightseeing
left to do, not much else to see here, the tour company
had basically said "stiff", I told the driver
tomorrow we are going to Sofia has over to him to organise
it, so we will see what happens.

One
other major problems with tour companies, like Selectours
of Bucharest, is that you tell them you want to go
to Bulgaria for 10 days, and they only have tours for
say six days, you run the risk of them padding it out
because they charge by the day, and you find yourself
with a one hour program for the day and the rest of the
day is free, my guide disappeared totally this afternoon,
I hope he had a good day!

And
of course they wanted cash up front, and just try and
get any refund!